According to Vitaliy Katsenelson, the Dow Jones industrial average will trade in a tight range — which he dubs Cowardly Lion trading — for possibly nine more years if the market follows the trends of the last 100 years.

US workers, their retirement funds already clobbered by a decade-long flat-lining of the major stock market indexes, are facing the growing odds of another Lost Decade — which would further tarnish their dreams of prosperous retirement.

A number of financial pros are predicting just such a nightmare — that the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 Index, into which many workers have invested their 401(k) cash, will march sideways for as many as another 10 years.

“The country will grow at a slower rate over the next 10 years as Americans begin the long process of de-leveraging,” said money manager Vitaliy Katsenelson, who has studied the Dow’s performance over the past 100 years. “That will produce lower corporate profits which will keep markets at bay.”

Katsenelson, a portfolio manager with Denver-based Investment Management Associates, said expected higher taxes will also keep the economy in check.

“The reality is, all long-term markets in the last century, with one exception, were either bull or range-bound,” said Katsenelson, who calls the up-a-little-down-a-little markets “Cowardly Lion” markets — where occasional bursts of bravery lead to stock appreciation, but ultimately are overrun by fear.

“Every protracted, secular bull market that lasted about 15-17 years was followed by a Cowardly Lion market that lasted about as long,” Katsenelson said. The only exception was the Great Depression, where the bull market was followed by a bear market.

Since 1950, there have been two bull markets — a 16-year bull stretching from January 1950 through January 1966 and a second from October 1982 through January 2000 — he said.

The first run-up was followed by an almost equally long flat market — called a range-bound market, where stocks trade within a narrow band. After the second bull market ended in 2000, stocks have marched sideways for nine years.

Katsenelson, the author of “Active ValueInvesting”: Making Money in range-bound markets,” said it is also important to pay attention to the price-earnings ratio of the S&P 500, which averaged roughly 15 since 1900.

“P-Es will continue to fall from their current average of 21 to below 15, which will put pressure on stock prices,” he said.

Katsenelson isn’t alone in thinking investors are looking at a second Lost Decade.

“Because the Federal Reserve is acting to smooth out business cycles, the range bound markets can be extended longer than normal — and can last from 15 to 18 years,” said Douglas Roberts, of Channel Capital Research.

“We are not addressing the excesses, the problems,” said Roberts, who noted that the Fed, to create demand now, is simply borrowing from the future, not creating more efficient markets.

“The cash-for-clunkers program likely just borrowed the sales from the future,” he said.

The takeaway for investors is that they can no longer be buy-and-hold investors and must become more active investors, Katsenelson said.

“During range-bound markets, the positives and negatives cancel each other out and 90 percent of your return will be determined by asset allocation,” he said.

Roberts said when the Fed is a free-spending stimulus machine, small-cap stocks have outperformed large-cap because they can better pick up the excess liquidity.

Investors have to get smarter or else risk having their investments march in place for another 10 years, said Katsenelson.